Instead, I’ve decided to replay every addicting Flash game I can think of in one sitting. Or at least, until I got bored enough to make a blog post. Which is what I’m doing. Hey, look, Devil Dogs.

Those were some good Devil Dogs. Heh, I just mistyped “dogs” and it came out “gods”. They’re not exactly the gods of food though. That’s more like sushi. Seriously. I got sushi at the mall the other day, and I said “thank you” to the guy in Chinese. And he was all like “ZOMG”, but he wasn’t “ZOMG” really because I don’t think they have a “ZOMG” in Chinese.

I really want sushi right now.

Except, if I had sushi, I’d try to eat it and fail. On account of it being dark, y’see, and I couldn’t aim for the stuff with chopsticks. I’d probably get that sauce stuff all over my new mac, too, and that would suck because I couldn’t use my computer OR enjoy the full extent of my sushi.

Never mind that though. I had a reason for writing this post, if only I could remember what it was.

Oh yeah, games suck. Did I mention that? I think I did. I’d spit at the games industry right now but I’m not sure what direction it’s in. It’s not like Mecca. I don’t know where the hell it is from my house. Then again I don’t know where Mecca is from my house, because that’s not my bloody problem, is it? I’m just saying, if I had to know where Mecca was, I’d probably know, but I don’t have to know where the games industry is so I don’t know where it is.

So here’s the related xkcd comic, because every post should have an xkcd comic:

This is pathetically true. And you know why? Because people like books.

Now, wait, wait a minute, it’s completely related. I’m sure you’re all like, but Chris, people don’t like books. Well guess what. They do. The cool people anyway. And do you know why people like books? Because you can pick them up and put them down anytime you like. Seriously. Try it, grab a book right now. Okay, now open the book up and read a paragraph. Now close the book.

SEE HOW EASY THAT WAS?

Now let’s compare that to playing LittleBigPlanet on the PS3.

First, I have to turn the fuckin’ console on. Then I have to insert the fuckin’ disc. Then I have to get WHATEVER ASSININE UPDATE SONY THINKS I REALLY REALLY NEED and wait for it to DOWNLOAD. That’s why my PS2 is right next to my PS3. When my PS3 downloads shit, I play my PS2. Here’s a hint, Sony: If I’m playing your older system because I think it’s better for some reason – this reason being that it doesn’t connect to the Internet and update itself practically every time I turn it on – it means YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG SOMEHOW. So where was I. Oh yeah. Then after all that shit, I can finally play the goddamn game.

Flash games rock because you can play them anytime you want. You just open up your browser and you play them. No updates. Hardly any loading times. And when you have to stop playing, you don’t worry about losing an hour of progress because most Flash games just don’t last that long. (And those that do, give you the capability to save or level-select. You know. Like a bookmark in a book.)

Open a tab, close a tab. It’s like picking up a book and putting it down. Simple and entertaining. And don’t even think about whining how books are more cerebral or for the more intelligent people or whatever. There are lots of Flash games out there that are really damn clever. And there are plenty of books out there that suck, too. In fact, the majority of them. I almost wish there were a Yahtzee for the world of literature, because that blows just as much as the game industry. Except no one wants to admit that, because then all of the people who call themselves writers would jump out a window or live on the streets or eat their own books or whatever the hell it is depressed writers do.

The printing press: Giving people the capability to churn out shit since 1439. Or something like that. Wikipedia says so anyway.

Back to Flash games, now. If you haven’t played it already, I’d like to introduce y’all to the Portal of Flash games. Like Portal, it takes a gameplay mechanic and not only generates increasingly complex puzzles, but it also generates fun. You know, fun. That thing you’re supposed to have when playing a game.

Also like Portal, this game has a single godlike “character” that pumps you full of sarcasm as you progress through it. It’s called Shift and I think you should play it right now, then play its sequels that I can’t be bothered to link just at the moment.

Five am is approaching with disconcerting speed and I still have one other thing to show you. It’s a game called You Have To Burn The Rope. Keep in mind that, if you get stuck playing the game, there are plenty of walkthroughs available. Here’s the game teaser trailer:

I thought it was pretty funny, but then again it’s really late and what do I know?

It’s getting harder and harder to perform copy-pastes, which means it’s probably time to go back to sleep. And no, that’s not because I’m retarded and missing keys. I’m on a mac, and apparently everything you press the “Control” key for on a PC, you have to press the “Command” key for on a mac. It’s taking a while to get used to. Oh, and where the hell are my Page Up and Page Down keys, Apple? I miss my Page Up and Page Down keys. Also, Home and End. They were good buddies.

It’s really dark and I can’t see the keyboard. Although, for another $200, I could have gotten a mac with a keyboard that lights up. Please, someone, explain to me why anyone would want that. I can type with two hands, thank you very much.

Well, I’ve had just about enough of Flash games for the night. Bedtime.

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13 Responses to “The insomnia post”

Speaking of simple yet clever games, i remember clicking on the link you provided to Undo and getting a bunch of gobbledigook in my browser. Is it only playable on a PC? By the way, i have page up, page down, home, and end keys on my apple keyboard. If you’re on a laptop or the new wireless keyboard, page up is opt+up arrow or fn+up arrow. Home = cmd+up arrow.

WinTADS, the interpreter, is only playable on PC. However, I’m sure that if you Google hard enough, you’ll find a TADS interpreter for Mac. When I made the post, it was from PC, and I didn’t consider mac users. Whoops!

Thanks for the tip, seriously. I can’t live without my Home/End/PgUp/PgDown keys.

I was more surprised at the concept than having fun playing the game, y’know what I mean? It was more fun to read than to play; but at the same time, there weren’t a lot of annoying rooms to distract you.

I would, however, make the argument that there must be some element of the game that makes it addictive (or at least it was so to me). Whether it’s an aspect of wit, storytelling, or something in its design, there is something about it that makes it fun.

In theory, it shouldn’t have kept my attention. There’ve been many text-based games where I couldn’t solve the first puzzle or so and I’ve just given up, but Undo had me going at it for an embarrassingly long time, and I’d even gotten my friend to download a copy to see if he could figure it out (he did). I should have just up and left.

Even if it was something as simple as the way it was written, or the way it was presented, I think there’s something we can learn from Undo. I should have hated the game – but I didn’t.

I think there’s also an element to it that made it more rewarding to “play” than other text-based games, which is a different matter entirely. In other text-based adventures, the environment doesn’t do anything rewarding unless you do something in the proper sequence. In Undo, something as simple as picking up a binary digit or reading writing on the wall was rewarding in some sense. Maybe it was the cleverness behind it? Could be.

However, that rewarding/unrewarding struggle is present in games even today. In most games, the game won’t do anything rewarding unless you follow a particular sequence. Now, there have been attempts to make games where everything one does is rewarding – that is, free open-world games – but then equal amounts of reward makes it downright uninteresting.

Coming back to Portal, as it’s probably one of the more popular titles I own and easy to use as an example, there’s an effective rewarding/unrewarding element in there. The ultimate “goal” so to speak is to get to the end of each test chamber; the ultimate “goal” in Undo is to win the game by going east, around the hole. BUT, the game’s world is rewarding to explore on its own.

In Portal, you could keep yourself entertained for a surprisingly long time in just one test chamber, working out all the different ways to solve the puzzle, or just putting yourself through an infinite tunnel of portals to hear the air rush past you. None of these, however, are explicitly “rewarded” in the game – you don’t get a trophy for working out complicated strategies, for example, and yet there’s something about it that’s rewarding in itself.

In Undo, the same sort of thing – nothing you explore has the least bit to do with winning the game, and you don’t even get points. But, there’s something rewarding about it nonetheless.

There’s something to be said about Assassin’s Creed here, too, in which exploring the gameworld (not explicitly rewarded) was more “rewarding” than doing something that actually advanced the plot (i.e. those fucking repetitive minigames). Yet, the cutscenes served enough of a reward for me to keep going, for some reason.

Anyway, those are just my rough 7:30am thoughts on what’s rewarding or not in a game. Hope you find it useful, n.

Forgive me if i am not able to return as knowledgeable a reply as yours, but i have little experience with games, let alone text-based adventures, so bear with me.

It’s true that every action performed in Undo is responded to, but i wouldn’t say it’s rewarding, because none of the chambers provided anything substantial that could help you “win” the game. In turn, i think what you said about most text-based games not rewarding you unless you do things in a particular sequence applies to Undo as well, because you have to ask certain animals certain things in a certain order to beat it.

What i didn’t like the most was that the game started at the end and that it gave me no motivation to complete it. The game was already played, and i “already had everything that i needed,” so what was the point of even finishing the game? Like you said, the fun is in playing the game, not finishing it, and i don’t think exploring the chambers counts as playing. Playing should involve getting closer to a goal.

I think the essential ingredients to a story should apply to games: you need a protagonist, a conflict, and a motivation for the protagonist to overcome that conflict. Undo provided no motivation for me, so i didn’t have a reason to play.

I wouldn’t even call Undo a game. I don’t know what it is—a commentary? a puzzle?—but it’s certainly not a game. Even the voice in Undo recognizes this at the end, when it asks, “What game won?”

I’ll try to be concise: Undo’s main flaw, I have to agree, is that it doesn’t give any motivation to play it in the first place. My motivation just came from “wow, text based adventure games! Lemme check them out,” which wouldn’t apply to most people.

To play devil’s advocate, the protagonist’s motivation (though not necessarily the player’s) is that he’s spent several hours playing a game and he wants to finish the damn thing. The conflict lies in the fact that the game won’t let him finish it; the game, in a sense, acts as a character here. So – the game is there, it’s just a very short one.

Let me just clarify by saying I don’t think Undo is necessarily a good game by itself, but I think there’s something within it that made me take notice. (By contrast, Portal is a good game by itself.)

I’d have to disagree on one major point though – gameplay is just playing a game, it’s not working towards a goal. Gameplay that seems to go nowhere is bad gameplay, but it’s still gameplay.

And yes, I did enjoy that little comment at the end of Undo. It was supposed to be a joke, remember? =D The guy wrote it mainly to annoy contest judges. And they were really pissed off. Besides my gut feeling, I think that the other thing that indicates there’s something interesting to this game is that it annoyed people. If you provoke a response, you must have done something right – even if you messed up in the execution.

But the protagonist’s motivation *should* be the player’s motivation. I think that’s the key to a good game. Something has to make me invest myself in the protagonist’s mission. Or maybe that’s just the key to a frighteningly addictive game…